Featuring:
- 16 German Dances, D. 783
- Piano Sonata No. 18 in G major, D. 894
- Six Moment Musicals, D. 780
- Piano Sonata No. 19 in C minor, D. 958
I was really looking forward to the recital, but this recital ended up being a mixed-bag recital. The biggest let down is not the artist, it's the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall at the Melbourne Recital Centre. While I have no problem or whatsoever with the hall acoustic in my previous 3 visits, this time I understand some people's complaint about the acoustic of being muddy. The piano sound did not arrive clearly to the rear seats of the stall and I noticed this problem as soon as Imogen played the first notes of the German Dances. The German Dances was played in a jumbled order to the reason that it's not explained in the program note. It was an okay performance, nothing new or different and the muddy sound did not help.
I have just recently being acquainted with Schubert's D. 894. Another sonata, another gem. I love Schubert's piano sonatas :). Right from the opening of the sonata, the whole journey takes you into a long journey of calm, wonderful soundscape. Imogen's playing exploits the lyrical beauty of the opening movement, and those thundering climaxes in the middle section were very well played. Again, if I can get a seating with better acoustic, I could have enjoyed those moment more. The second movement is less successful, I don't know if it's the playing or the freaking acoustic again, I was almost bored here. The third and fourth movements fared better.
A little bit of digression: the recital hall is 30% empty at the stalls. My first thought is "that's not too bad if the balcony is 80% full", but my fear came true when I looked up during the interval and saw an empty balcony and wing sections (gasp!). This recital really brought to life all the grim news that I heard about the problems with the recital hall: bad acoustic and low ticket sales. During the interval, I moved to an empty third row seat which is closer to my seat during Katia's recital compared to the back seat that I was seating during first interval. To my horror, when Imogen started playing the first moment musical, I was taken aback how the sound changed from muddy sound to crystal clear. A number of other audience actually did switch the seats and from the comments after the concert, they all agreed that switching seat made a big impact. I now seriously have to stop promoting the recital hall as acoustically wonderful - it all depends on where you are seating. If you're in for a chamber music recital, I would definitely recommend you to sit at the front row seats. I haven't had problem with balcony seats, but I would reexamine the acoustic there the next time I'm sitting up there.
Back to the music: the moment musical are exquisitely played. The first 3 are wonderful, lyricism is plenty in this performance. Imogen perhaps over attacked the opening of 4th moment musical, and I'm actually quite worried about her performance in the 5th as she made few mistakes when playing large chords of the piece. The 6th moment musical is a poetic one and its style suited more to Imogen's playing.
Dramatic chords open up Schubert's C minor sonata, Imogen's tone is slightly harsh and I've found that her fortissimo borders on banging the piano. Also, there's this wonderful passage in this movement where the bass played a very satirical melody just before the main theme came back after the development, and also just before the end of the piece. Here, Imogen placed less impact than I would have liked, but I'm just nitpicking. Imogen playing shone during the lyrical sections and the glorious Adagio of the sonata is the highlight of the recital for me. The gradual crescendo building in the middle section of the movement still sounded a little bit too harsh, but maybe I was sitting too close to the piano? I don't know. Third movement was charming and the fourth movement repeating main theme never sounded boring which is a good thing. As a whole though, I still very much prefer Richter's and Pollini's playing of the piece in their recordings.
To sum up, I think tonight's programming was very generous, and even after the problem that I had with the acoustic, I still very much came out uplifted with Schubert's glorious and 'heavenly-length' music.
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Sunday 17 May 2009
Musica Viva presents Katia Skanavi - 16 May 2009
Featuring:
- Schubert Piano Sonata No. 14 in A minor, D. 784
- Vine Piano Sonata no. 3
- Chopin Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante
- Chopin Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
After a few days of hesitating between tonight's concert with the earlier concert which basically features the same program except that in the earlier concert (on last Tuesday) Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 'Funeral March' will be featured instead of tonight's Third sonata. I was too busy on Tuesday and finally chose this concert. I went to the box office 2 hours before the performance and after a small chat with the attendant, I discovered that there is a student rush ticket for the performance. I sat there waiting for 1 hour and hoped that the concert won't be sold out until then. Luck was on my side, I can still get a seat, but alas, I can only get seats on the right side of the hall - which means I can't see the pianist hands!
The recital began by Katia, wearing a black dress, walked to the piano, bowed to the audience, sat down and start launching herself at the Schubert's sonata. The dark opening march caught me off guard, especially the intensity of how she built the first fortissimo. The second lyrical theme was played delicately showing well controlled pianissimo passages. The rest of the movement was brilliant, as well as the second movement with its 'sarcastic' melody interrupting the flow of the main melody. I am less impressed with the third movement, probably more because the main theme is not as interesting as the other two. Nevertheless, the overall playing of Schubert sonata was gorgeous.
Carl Vine's piano sonata is better than I expected, and it is quite interesting. The scattered main motifs in the beginning of the piece are developed in various disguise. Katia's playing in the central rhythmic section was wonderful, but I detected a slight slower tempo than the indicated Presto during the last virtuosic part of the sonata.
After the interval, the flowing arpeggio accompaniment of Chopin Spianato's was played and the beautiful cantabile main theme soon followed. Here, Katia immersed herself and showed a lot of body gestures not present in the performance of previous two sonatas. In the polonaise followed, I have a minor complaint on how she held back the tempo during some passages. And surprise surprise, I actually kind of miss the beautiful horn (?) passages at the end of the piece if the performance is accompanied by the orchestra. It's not that the passage is totally non-existent in the solo piano version, it's just the timbre difference.
I am not entirely familiar with Chopin's 3rd sonata. I thought the opening of the first movement is too turbulent, but the triumphant ending made me very happy. The second movement is a lively piece with plenty of quaver notes running up and down, and is written in simple ternary form. Katia's magical playing arrived in the 3rd movement. Here the time stands still. An effective use of silence and beautifully controlled cantabile playing made this movement my favourite of the night. Such serenity and sonority that she brought out, I don't even want it to end. The finale impressed me less, but you can't resist the coda in the end. Huge applause followed.
Katia gave two delightful encores. The first encore has a dance-characteristic played in the left hand, I don't know this piece. The second encore is the C-sharp minor Nocturne (Op. posth). Splendid, if you love Chopin's Nocturnes. And that wraps up the night.
A wonderful concert. Katia's wonderful playing and gracefulness will stay in my mind for a long time to come.
- Schubert Piano Sonata No. 14 in A minor, D. 784
- Vine Piano Sonata no. 3
- Chopin Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante
- Chopin Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
After a few days of hesitating between tonight's concert with the earlier concert which basically features the same program except that in the earlier concert (on last Tuesday) Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 'Funeral March' will be featured instead of tonight's Third sonata. I was too busy on Tuesday and finally chose this concert. I went to the box office 2 hours before the performance and after a small chat with the attendant, I discovered that there is a student rush ticket for the performance. I sat there waiting for 1 hour and hoped that the concert won't be sold out until then. Luck was on my side, I can still get a seat, but alas, I can only get seats on the right side of the hall - which means I can't see the pianist hands!
The recital began by Katia, wearing a black dress, walked to the piano, bowed to the audience, sat down and start launching herself at the Schubert's sonata. The dark opening march caught me off guard, especially the intensity of how she built the first fortissimo. The second lyrical theme was played delicately showing well controlled pianissimo passages. The rest of the movement was brilliant, as well as the second movement with its 'sarcastic' melody interrupting the flow of the main melody. I am less impressed with the third movement, probably more because the main theme is not as interesting as the other two. Nevertheless, the overall playing of Schubert sonata was gorgeous.
Carl Vine's piano sonata is better than I expected, and it is quite interesting. The scattered main motifs in the beginning of the piece are developed in various disguise. Katia's playing in the central rhythmic section was wonderful, but I detected a slight slower tempo than the indicated Presto during the last virtuosic part of the sonata.
After the interval, the flowing arpeggio accompaniment of Chopin Spianato's was played and the beautiful cantabile main theme soon followed. Here, Katia immersed herself and showed a lot of body gestures not present in the performance of previous two sonatas. In the polonaise followed, I have a minor complaint on how she held back the tempo during some passages. And surprise surprise, I actually kind of miss the beautiful horn (?) passages at the end of the piece if the performance is accompanied by the orchestra. It's not that the passage is totally non-existent in the solo piano version, it's just the timbre difference.
I am not entirely familiar with Chopin's 3rd sonata. I thought the opening of the first movement is too turbulent, but the triumphant ending made me very happy. The second movement is a lively piece with plenty of quaver notes running up and down, and is written in simple ternary form. Katia's magical playing arrived in the 3rd movement. Here the time stands still. An effective use of silence and beautifully controlled cantabile playing made this movement my favourite of the night. Such serenity and sonority that she brought out, I don't even want it to end. The finale impressed me less, but you can't resist the coda in the end. Huge applause followed.
Katia gave two delightful encores. The first encore has a dance-characteristic played in the left hand, I don't know this piece. The second encore is the C-sharp minor Nocturne (Op. posth). Splendid, if you love Chopin's Nocturnes. And that wraps up the night.
A wonderful concert. Katia's wonderful playing and gracefulness will stay in my mind for a long time to come.
Friday 15 May 2009
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 15 May 2009 - Dream
Featuring:
- Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night's Dream: Overture
- Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
- Tchaikovsky Selections from The Nutcracker and Swan Lake
Alexey Yemtsov - Piano
Andrew Grams - Conductor
Tonight was a very very memorable night. Despite the corniness of the concert title, the relatively light music, and my low expectation of Tchaikovsky's ballet music treated seriously - one man changed all of that: the conductor Andrew Grams. I will talk more about it later.
Let's start with our usual organ recital by Calvin Bowman. I arrived 5 seconds late, and I can see the ushers closing the door. One of them then accompanied me to enter from the rear entry. I then sat at the last row, just a little bit inside in the row. More people then came, some of them sat in front of me. All perfectly fine until a couple asked me to give them some space so that they can walk past me while I immersed myself in Bach's music. Annoyed a little bit, since they could have walked till the end of the row without disturbing me. I almost snapped when an usher tapped my shoulder asking me to move a little bit inwards the row. He was the one who asked me to sit at the back row in the first place! The latecomers shouldn't be prioritised, especially when they are already late for 15 minutes. The usher should have suggested something cleverer like asking them to go the long way to get a seat without disturbing anybody. Wasn't happy with him, I did not move inwards, I gave some space for an elderly couple to move past, and then after the first Bach piece, I moved 6 or 7 rows in front where nobody is sitting. Then the rest of the recital is wonderful.
The first Bach piece was 'Piece d'orgue' Fantasia in G major, BWV 572. A very interesting piece with a two-note motif present towards the piece. The second piece was an arrangement of Bach's Organ Concerto in G major, BWV 592 by Ernst (not sure who he is). Lively two outer movements with a dark slow movement in between (IIRC). Next piece is Bridge's Lento - lovely music, not unsuitable as a gorgeous film music. Gigout's 'Adoramos in Aeternum' closed the recital beautifully. Fantastic performance from Calvin Bowman tonight. One slight complaint about MSO: they ran out of organ recital programs. I couldn't get one copy of it, but there were only around 50 people attending the organ recital. Eventually, I got a copy courtesy of a nice lady sitting beside me.
At a short glance, tonight's program consists of 'pretty' music. Nothing 'deep' like a Beethoven or Brahms or Mahler symphony. All are quite popular, especially Tchaikovsky's ballet music. This usually spells disaster in terms of performance: the orchestra can just play sloppily and the audience can still enjoy the music. But that didn't happen tonight. Mendelssohn's overture was played beautifully. The rapid strings notes came out as clear as crystal while never losing the excitement. MSO's woodwinds section chirps throughout. Brass and horns let their presence felt while not overpowering the strings. MSO just played so differently tonight, it was wonderful. The deliberate tempo slowing just before the recapitulation of the rapid strings works like charm. The finale is as fantastic as it could have been and the overture set the tone for the night: the audience is in for wonderful time.
Alexey Yemtsov came on the stage playing Rachmaninov's famous rhapsody. Instead of the usual muffled tone from the grand piano, he produced brilliant clear tone. Accompanied by the in-form orchestra, he blasted through the rhapsody, playing brilliantly throughout. The Dies Irae variation is heavy, cadenza like variations played lightning fast. Poetic is his approach during the slow variations leading up to the gorgeous 18th variation. He dashed through the finale as it was nothing, excitement is never far from his performance. As an icing on the cake, he gave an encore which unfortunately I'm not very familiar with. My best guess: impressionist (Debussy or Ravel piece?) or late romantic music.
I honestly didn't expect much from the performance of Tchaikovsky's ballet music, even after a great first half of the concert. My expectations were turned upside down after a few bars of the Nutcracker music. Tchaikovsky's music, being too popular, has always been treated lightly by a lot of performers and audience. Andrew Grams showed us how the Nutcracker can sound like if you treat Tchaikovsky's music as a masterpiece. The Nutcracker excerpt starts with the Entry of Clara and the Prince in the second act, followed by Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, Russian dances and Dance of the Reed Pipes. Percussion section shines here and have I already mentioned that the woodwinds played faultlessly tonight? The mother ginger music and the charming, ever popular Waltz of the flowers end this fabulous performance.
The crown achievement of the night is the performance of excerpts from Swan Lake. The all too familiar Swan Lake theme got an invigorating treatment. Climaxes are as loud as they can be, emphasising dramatic elements of Swan Lake story. The Waltz is so fantastic that when it ended, some people just can't help but applaud to it. Wilma Smith and David Berlin gave wonderful solos in Pas d'action of Odette and the Prince. The concert ended in a super overwhelming Finale of Swan Lake and the audience raptured in the end! Some of them even gave standing ovations. If I were to sum up that performance in one word it will be 'electrifying'. What a memorable night. This can easily be one of my favourite MSO concerts, equaling the great concerts of Mahler 1, 2 and Verdi's Requiem.
This night was made even memorable for some non-musical reasons. There are two small interruptions in the middle of this concert. The first one was a person almost collapsed while walking up the stairs in the middle of slow variations of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody. The second was in the middle of the Nutcracker excerpts where a number of ushers tried to help this old lady.
Conclusion: I will be having eargasm everytime in MSO concerts if MSO keeps playing at this level. I heard mutters of fellow audience after the performance and they all agreed with me that they just heard something rather special that night. 'Never heard of Swan Lake being done so dramatically', 'Love the conductor's conducting style', 'I thought that he's gonna take off' are just some example comments that I overheard. I'd love to see the conductor back in Melbourne: tackling a well-known symphony. Last but not least, tonight's concert is almost a full-house, extreme contrast with last Town Hall concert. MSO playing in this level is really wonderful, keep up the good work guys! Thanks for a truly memorable night.
My next concert: ACO playing Schoenberg's Transfigured Night.
- Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night's Dream: Overture
- Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
- Tchaikovsky Selections from The Nutcracker and Swan Lake
Alexey Yemtsov - Piano
Andrew Grams - Conductor
Tonight was a very very memorable night. Despite the corniness of the concert title, the relatively light music, and my low expectation of Tchaikovsky's ballet music treated seriously - one man changed all of that: the conductor Andrew Grams. I will talk more about it later.
Let's start with our usual organ recital by Calvin Bowman. I arrived 5 seconds late, and I can see the ushers closing the door. One of them then accompanied me to enter from the rear entry. I then sat at the last row, just a little bit inside in the row. More people then came, some of them sat in front of me. All perfectly fine until a couple asked me to give them some space so that they can walk past me while I immersed myself in Bach's music. Annoyed a little bit, since they could have walked till the end of the row without disturbing me. I almost snapped when an usher tapped my shoulder asking me to move a little bit inwards the row. He was the one who asked me to sit at the back row in the first place! The latecomers shouldn't be prioritised, especially when they are already late for 15 minutes. The usher should have suggested something cleverer like asking them to go the long way to get a seat without disturbing anybody. Wasn't happy with him, I did not move inwards, I gave some space for an elderly couple to move past, and then after the first Bach piece, I moved 6 or 7 rows in front where nobody is sitting. Then the rest of the recital is wonderful.
The first Bach piece was 'Piece d'orgue' Fantasia in G major, BWV 572. A very interesting piece with a two-note motif present towards the piece. The second piece was an arrangement of Bach's Organ Concerto in G major, BWV 592 by Ernst (not sure who he is). Lively two outer movements with a dark slow movement in between (IIRC). Next piece is Bridge's Lento - lovely music, not unsuitable as a gorgeous film music. Gigout's 'Adoramos in Aeternum' closed the recital beautifully. Fantastic performance from Calvin Bowman tonight. One slight complaint about MSO: they ran out of organ recital programs. I couldn't get one copy of it, but there were only around 50 people attending the organ recital. Eventually, I got a copy courtesy of a nice lady sitting beside me.
At a short glance, tonight's program consists of 'pretty' music. Nothing 'deep' like a Beethoven or Brahms or Mahler symphony. All are quite popular, especially Tchaikovsky's ballet music. This usually spells disaster in terms of performance: the orchestra can just play sloppily and the audience can still enjoy the music. But that didn't happen tonight. Mendelssohn's overture was played beautifully. The rapid strings notes came out as clear as crystal while never losing the excitement. MSO's woodwinds section chirps throughout. Brass and horns let their presence felt while not overpowering the strings. MSO just played so differently tonight, it was wonderful. The deliberate tempo slowing just before the recapitulation of the rapid strings works like charm. The finale is as fantastic as it could have been and the overture set the tone for the night: the audience is in for wonderful time.
Alexey Yemtsov came on the stage playing Rachmaninov's famous rhapsody. Instead of the usual muffled tone from the grand piano, he produced brilliant clear tone. Accompanied by the in-form orchestra, he blasted through the rhapsody, playing brilliantly throughout. The Dies Irae variation is heavy, cadenza like variations played lightning fast. Poetic is his approach during the slow variations leading up to the gorgeous 18th variation. He dashed through the finale as it was nothing, excitement is never far from his performance. As an icing on the cake, he gave an encore which unfortunately I'm not very familiar with. My best guess: impressionist (Debussy or Ravel piece?) or late romantic music.
I honestly didn't expect much from the performance of Tchaikovsky's ballet music, even after a great first half of the concert. My expectations were turned upside down after a few bars of the Nutcracker music. Tchaikovsky's music, being too popular, has always been treated lightly by a lot of performers and audience. Andrew Grams showed us how the Nutcracker can sound like if you treat Tchaikovsky's music as a masterpiece. The Nutcracker excerpt starts with the Entry of Clara and the Prince in the second act, followed by Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, Russian dances and Dance of the Reed Pipes. Percussion section shines here and have I already mentioned that the woodwinds played faultlessly tonight? The mother ginger music and the charming, ever popular Waltz of the flowers end this fabulous performance.
The crown achievement of the night is the performance of excerpts from Swan Lake. The all too familiar Swan Lake theme got an invigorating treatment. Climaxes are as loud as they can be, emphasising dramatic elements of Swan Lake story. The Waltz is so fantastic that when it ended, some people just can't help but applaud to it. Wilma Smith and David Berlin gave wonderful solos in Pas d'action of Odette and the Prince. The concert ended in a super overwhelming Finale of Swan Lake and the audience raptured in the end! Some of them even gave standing ovations. If I were to sum up that performance in one word it will be 'electrifying'. What a memorable night. This can easily be one of my favourite MSO concerts, equaling the great concerts of Mahler 1, 2 and Verdi's Requiem.
This night was made even memorable for some non-musical reasons. There are two small interruptions in the middle of this concert. The first one was a person almost collapsed while walking up the stairs in the middle of slow variations of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody. The second was in the middle of the Nutcracker excerpts where a number of ushers tried to help this old lady.
Conclusion: I will be having eargasm everytime in MSO concerts if MSO keeps playing at this level. I heard mutters of fellow audience after the performance and they all agreed with me that they just heard something rather special that night. 'Never heard of Swan Lake being done so dramatically', 'Love the conductor's conducting style', 'I thought that he's gonna take off' are just some example comments that I overheard. I'd love to see the conductor back in Melbourne: tackling a well-known symphony. Last but not least, tonight's concert is almost a full-house, extreme contrast with last Town Hall concert. MSO playing in this level is really wonderful, keep up the good work guys! Thanks for a truly memorable night.
My next concert: ACO playing Schoenberg's Transfigured Night.
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